Treatment for Children With Oral Motor Skill Problems

Children often experience developmental delays or challenges in one area or another. Modern medicine and psychology have come to appreciate this and have developed various therapies and techniques for helping children develop skills that aren't coming as quickly as kids, parents and teachers might like. Thumb sucking, drooling, eating problems and early speech development delays can stem from undeveloped oral motor skills. Speech language pathologists have many exercises and games to address oral motor deficiencies, often using things as simple as cookies.

Oral Motor Skills

• The muscle strength and tone of a child's oral and facial muscles affects her ability to articulate and eat. Parents typically begin to notice their children having difficulty speaking, expressing themselves facially and eating advanced solids before pediatricians and speech language pathologists hone in on the issue. In essence, children lacking age-appropriate oral motor skills have weak muscles in and around their mouths. As with other striated muscle groups, exercise can strengthen them.

Treatment Plans

• There are many activities and exercises that can help children build muscles in and around their mouths. Speech language pathologists (SLPs) evaluate children not only for oral motor deficiencies, but for personality, intellectual and emotional development. Because treatment relies on a child performing tasks and activities, SLPs strategize how to get children to make the right movements with enough repetition using approaches consistent with their specific needs, dispositions and capabilities.

Exercises

• SLPs have many choices to address a child's oral motor skill development issues. These include having the child suck thickened drinks through straws; blow cotton balls, horns, whistles and windmills; chew and mouth plastic and rubber objects; lick peanut butter and other foods from around the mouth; and play with oral motor tools and toys. Although SLPs guide many of these during treatment sessions -- particularly activities involving tools and toys -- they usually give parents a list of activities to perform at home. Chewing activities are some of the easiest for a parent to create and supervise.

Cookies

• It doesn't usually take much coaxing for a child to chew on a cookie. Pediatric SLPs sometimes recommend cookies because children tend to consistently do activities that are fun and easy for them. Parents should choose cookies as chewy as their child will tolerate. Varieties such as oatmeal and molasses are good for extended chewing time, as are harder cookies, like ginger snaps. Depending on the child's taste and abilities, parents may have to work their way up from softer choices like sugar cookies and soft chocolate chip cookies. While not necessary as oral motor exercises, SLPs recommend cookie baking for language development and cognitive issues. Discussion of ingredients, activities and describing patterns of cookies on a baking sheet can support development of speech and improve communication.